EEB graduate student orientation seminar

EEB 5894 Section 003 (Planning for a career in EEB) - FALL 2017

This 1 credit seminar course is intended to provide orientation information to incoming EEB graduate students, although it is open to other students; we strongly advise new students to take it. The course will meet for about an hour a week, with 2-3 faculty or a small panel of other EEB-connected people discussing a given topic each week.

Meeting time: Tuesdays 3:45-5

Location: Bamford Room (Torrey 171B)

Course coordinators: Elizabeth Jockusch, Chris Elphick

Grading: This course is graded on an S/U basis. Regular attendance and participation will result in a grade of S.

INFORMATION BELOW STILL REQUIRES UPDATING FOR THE UPCOMING SEMESTER

Tentative syllabus (subject to change)

Date	Presenters	Topic	Resources	Notes
Aug 29	Kent Holsinger, Chris Elphick	What do you aim to accomplish in grad school (and beyond)?	NEEDS UPDATEGraduate Certificate in College Instruction Employment Data GradHacker - A blog with advice on graduate school and beyond Grad Traps: Traps to avoid in graduate school, written by a philosopher, but the advice is good for everyone
Sept 5	Carl Schlichting, Elizabeth Jockusch	University/department structure and resources; Degree ontogenies	NEEDS UPDATE Departmental and University Resources University Resources II
Sept 12	Paul Lewis	Communicating your work: web sites	P. Lewis presentation	Homework: complete your web site.
Sept 19	Louise Lewis and Holly Brown	Developing as a teacher	NEEDS UPDATE Reading on teaching innovations is here How TA assignments work	(also discuss how TA assignments work)
Sept 26	CONFIRMJill Wegrzyn, Andy Bush	Work-life balance	NEEDS UPDATE Notes and links
Oct 3	NEEDS UPDATE Grad panel:	Courses, committees, getting started		Panel discussion
Oct 10	NEEDS UPDATE Eric Schultz, Mike Willig	How does research funding work	Schultz funding presentation Willig funding presentation	need to address both NSF/NIH and other agency/foundation sources, cover OSP etc.
Oct 17	NEEDS UPDATE Mark Urban, Louise Lewis	Communicating your work: how does publishing work	Louise and Mark on publishing Guide to Peer Review (British Ecological Society) How to Publish in Science Joy of Peer Review Fantasy cover letter
Oct 24	CONFIRM Morgan Tingley, Bagchi	Communicating your work: conferences and publishing	NEEDS UPDATE Getting a speaker award How to network How to give a good talk	Homework: get set up to edit in eebedia or Aurora
Oct 31	NEEDS UPDATE Yaowu Yuan, Janine Caira	Formulating good scientific questions	Alon 2009 on choosing good scientific problems E. O. Wilson on scientific discovery Janine and Yaowu on good questions
Nov 7	NEEDS UPDATE Margaret Rubega, Dave Wagner	Broader impacts, social media, and communication outside academia	How Broad Are Our Broader Impacts? An Analysis How The Culture of Science Engagement is Evolving Read Exec Summary and 1st four pages of Introduction D Wagner presentation
Nov 14	NEEDS UPDATE Bernard Goffinet, Kurt Schwenk	What is a dissertation/thesis?	NSF fellowships
Nov 21		THANKSGIVING BREAK
Nov 28	NEEDS UPDATE Pam Diggle, Chris Elphick	Research ethics and regulations	Nature Editorial on research misconduct Biological Conservation Editorial on coauthorship Pam on research ethics Chris on compliance & regulations UConn RCR training	NSF ethics training/IACUC/IRB/EH&S/BAUR/other lab safety/etc
Dec 5	NEEDS UPDATE Grad/postdoc panel: Kerri Mocko, Matthew Aiello-Lammens, Diego Sustaita, Laura Cisneros	Lessons I learned the hard way		Panel discussion

Useful readings: Some modest advice for graduate students: Steve Stearns and Ray Huey
The full exchange is on Ray Huey's page: http://faculty.washington.edu/hueyrb/prospective.php

Stephen Stearns's later reflections: http://stearnslab.yale.edu/designs-learning

Nature editorial on life outside of academia
Nature perspective on choosing alternative careers

Advice for new graduate students